So, at some point in the coming year, Microsoft are likely to ship a new operating system, designed for new ideas in the field of user interaction and fix the faults that many people find in Vista.

But what next? If Windows 7 is a runaway success where do Microsoft go next? What's the next big thing they'll do? The "Wow" started in 2007, but how do they keep it going beyond 2009? Will it be more "software + services"? More virtualisation? How will they
convince business that whatever it is is the next big thing and worth it.

And if Windows 7 is a flop, how will they try and recover? Will they try "new and improved" or will they roll back. If they rolled back what would they roll back - the inside (kernel etc.) or outside (UI). If they try "new and improved" how would they make
it new and improved. And how would they market whatever change they made. To quote from The Vicar of Dibley - "There's good change and bad change. Prawn cocktail crisps - they're bad change. But traffic lights - if they never changed... they're good change".
(Quote not word perfect, but you get the idea).

There is already a thread on this exact topic. It puzzles me that you choose to spawn a replica, GoodersUK. - but beyond that...

I am sure everyone will like 7 (myself included) but life is a journey - a step on the path is not failure. It may never arrive at an end - humans will evolve so the target is a moving one - although unless you're on the singularity brain train, you're
not likely to evolve as fast as to require radical new ideas to accomodate your needs. There is also evidence to the fact that the brain might not be so easy to emulate as hitherto thought.

One of the big Microsoft plusses has always been integration and you can loop that the "Steve Ballmer "Developers"" way. In that sense, what would provide more integration between applications than an OS global database as well as a cloud reflection of
it. Fatamorgana?

Vista's failure is mostly because the graphics driver couldn't be stable on time, thus, there is no point to switch for gamers. Fixed as time goes on. And now Vista has stable graphics drivers, which works on Win7.

Another failure is that Vista is not eye candy enough. Same old taskbar, paint, and an useless Mail application. Live Mail is way better and it works on XP. No advantage over XP. Same WMP, same IE, same Photo Gallery, same Media Center. Added with bothersome
security control. Win 7 didn't really fix some of the problem, but at least the taskbar is new and you can do touch stuff.

Anyway, future of Windows? I thought it would be Singularity, Surface, Live Mesh, and other stuff.

There is already a thread on this exact topic. It puzzles me that you choose to spawn a replica, GoodersUK. - but beyond that...

I am sure everyone will like 7 (myself included) but life is a journey - a step on the path is not failure. It may never arrive at an end - humans will evolve so the target is a moving one - although unless you're on the singularity brain train, you're
not likely to evolve as fast as to require radical new ideas to accomodate your needs. There is also evidence to the fact that the brain might not be so easy to emulate as hitherto thought.

One of the big Microsoft plusses has always been integration and you can loop that the "Steve Ballmer "Developers"" way. In that sense, what would provide more integration between applications than an OS global database as well as a cloud reflection of
it. Fatamorgana?

I was here first

Anyway, that's given me an idea. No doubt this has already been thought about and discussed before. Probably even partially implemented. But a GUI that monitors and analyses the users actions that customises itself based upon this. A kind of evolving GUI.

Anyway, that's given me an idea. No doubt this has already been thought about and discussed before. Probably even partially implemented. But a GUI that monitors and analyses the users actions that customises itself based upon this. A kind of evolving GUI.

Then again it could just end up being a horrible mess.

That would be interesting - I wonder how it would react to a devigner like myself who spends a week in Photoshop, and then a week in MySQL, and then a week in my favorite Text Editor Not to mention the movie Click, with Adam Sandler, demonstrated
how evil technology that learns your ways can be

Anyway, that's given me an idea. No doubt this has already been thought about and discussed before. Probably even partially implemented. But a GUI that monitors and analyses the users actions that customises itself based upon this. A kind of evolving GUI.

Anyway, that's given me an idea. No doubt this has already been thought about and discussed before. Probably even partially implemented. But a GUI that monitors and analyses the users actions that customises itself based upon this. A kind of evolving GUI.

Then again it could just end up being a horrible mess.

But a GUI that monitors and analyses the users actions that customises itself based upon this. A kind of evolving GUI.

No no no... Do not let machine learn & evolve... Has James Cameron not taught us anything?

Anyway, that's given me an idea. No doubt this has already been thought about and discussed before. Probably even partially implemented. But a GUI that monitors and analyses the users actions that customises itself based upon this. A kind of evolving GUI.

Then again it could just end up being a horrible mess.

That probably wouldn't be a good idea. It would screw up muscle memory and things like that, similar to the adaptive menus of Office 2000.

That probably wouldn't be a good idea. It would screw up muscle memory and things like that, similar to the adaptive menus of Office 2000.

It's probably not a good idea to have the app change UI on the user... but I like the idea of having basic / advanced
UIs... as long as te user get to "graduate" themselves to the more advanced UI... I think that's an interesting concept...

That probably wouldn't be a good idea. It would screw up muscle memory and things like that, similar to the adaptive menus of Office 2000.

I don't know-- the XP and Vista adaptive start menus work well. They just have to reach a steady state, and then
the user can develop muscle memory.

The trouble with the Office adaptive menus was that they simply remembered the most recently used commands-- the Office adaptive menus never reached a steady state where you could start to develop muscle memory.

That would be interesting - I wonder how it would react to a devigner like myself who spends a week in Photoshop, and then a week in MySQL, and then a week in my favorite Text Editor
Not to mention the movie Click, with Adam Sandler, demonstrated how evil technology that learns your ways can be

Click demonstrates one thing. Users doesn't know what it can do and blame it when it did something they didn't expect.

There's a lot of ground to be covered in multitouch and surface computing. We're slowing growing out of the window'd model so I imagine the next operating system or so will be more canvas centric or surface focused. But who knows :/